Floor Statements

I want to thank the chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Veterans Affairs, Chairman Edwards, for his leadership on what has been an amazing increase in funding for veterans in this country. As chairman of the Appropriations Committee, we have seen in the last cycle the largest single increase in veterans funding in the 76-year history of the Veterans Administration in the last cycle. And, as such, that has carried over till this cycle and will in the succeeding years ahead as we continue to increase the veterans appropriations.

And, again, this year, we are seeing another large, large increase in the veterans spending, including increases in veterans mental health. And that, my friends, is what I am so pleased to see, especially in the wake of the terrible tragedy at Camp Victory, where we saw a murder- suicide, once again highlighting the terrible tragedy that so many of our veterans are facing with the psychological wounds that they are facing and the combat that they are so readily seeing on a day-to-day basis. They are not only suffering the physical wounds of war but the psychological and mental wounds of war.

I would like to acknowledge the ranking member, Zach Wamp, for the incredible support that he has given to our veterans in the area of mental health services.

We have seen in this bill $4.6 billion for mental health services in this bill. We have seen an additional $3.2 billion for homeless veterans. It's a tragedy, as my friend Sam Farr said, that the single largest percentage of the homeless population in this country are veterans. That should not be the case. In this bill, we seek to try to end that situation.

Madam Chairman, I am also pleased to see that this committee responds to the veterans of America in providing advance funding for veterans funding for the succeeding years, so that veterans do not have to wait on Congress to provide those funds, and that we provide an additional $48 billion in the 2011 budget.

And that, my friends, is a result of General Shinseki, the VA Secretary's strong advocacy and this President's commitment to our veterans to make sure that they don't have to wait--they don't have to wait for a budget in order to know that they're going to get the funds they need to take care of our veterans.

For these and all the reasons, I'm so proud to be part of this committee and to see that this country lives up to its promise to our Nation's veterans. And I thank the chairman for all the good work that he does, and I thank the ranking member for all the good work that he does. And I'm proud to be on this committee.

I thank the gentleman from Mississippi, and I thank all of those who have worked on this very important bill.

I had the opportunity to serve on the committee on oversight. Last week, we had a hearing on H1N1, the flu. Most people have forgotten about the flu already. What was very startling to me was that, like many things, they come and they go in our public consciousness. This flu is coming back by all the scientists' projections, and when it comes back, it's going to have mutated into an even more deadly strain.

The average age of death of people from this flu is 19 years old. The average person in an ICU is 24 years old. So this is a whole new phenomenon in terms of your father's Chevrolet. This is a whole new issue we are dealing with. I would hope that Homeland Security would be working with public health and with everyone else to help address this.

Mr. Chair, I regret that I was unable to participate in a vote on the floor of the House of Representatives today.

Had I been present to vote on rollcall No. 305, a Chaffetz (UT)/Shea- Porter (NH) Amendment to H.R. 2200, the Transportation Security Administration Authorization Act of 2009, I would have voted ``aye'' on the question.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the gentlelady from California (Mrs. Capps). Thank you for all your good work on health care. As a former nurse, you know full well of the challenges of making sure that we have adequate supply of providers and how important it is for us to address the needs of those with mental illness by making sure that there are enough providers out there who are adequately educated in the field of mental illness. And I appreciate your cosponsorship on the Child Work Force Reduction Act, which will address the need of bringing in more child and adolescent mental health workers into the workforce field to deal with children and adolescents who need mental health care, because right now we're at a critical stage in this country with respect to the need for our children to gain access to providers willing to take care of those special needs that children have in the area of mental health. And nurses and doctors are in great need for those reasons. And Lois Capps has been really one of the champions in the area of trying to provide greater numbers of nurses and professionals who can take on the enormous challenges ahead.

In addition to that, Mrs. Capps, you've been very helpful in recognizing the enormous boom that's going to happen with our aging population. We're going to have a baby boom generation that's going to become a senior boom generation, where so many of our baby boomers are going to be elder boomers. They're going to be elderly, and the demand for new nurses is going to be extraordinary. And we don't have, right now, the necessary populations of nurses to deal with that.

Many people write off senior citizens' dementia, if you will, as part of growing older. They say, Oh, Grandma. Well, that's Grandma. That's the way they are when they're nonresponsive.

Well, frankly, I certainly don't want to be treated that way when I grow old, and I dare say anybody watching this doesn't want to be treated that way when they grow old. And the fact of the matter is, for most older people, it isn't dementia that leaves them isolated and with their heads down; it's depression. It's depression. And who wouldn't be depressed if you're a senior citizen and you've lost your life mate after over 40 years of marriage, if you've had to pick up and sell your house because you've no longer been able to afford it any longer, if your children and grandchildren are scattered all across the country and very rarely visit you any longer, if now you're confined to an elderly-only high rise. I would imagine that would be pretty depressing for a lot of elderly people, and for many of them, it is depressing. And so we are working on the Positive Aging Act, which will address the needs of our senior centers and the needs of our seniors with regards to that.

But I also want to acknowledge my good friend and colleague, Grace Napolitano, who has been so wonderful in her efforts to lead the charge of the Mental Health Caucus. And Grace Napolitano has been a terrific champion for making sure that our young people are also included in on these issues of mental health because she has seen in her own neighborhoods, that we may talk about war overseas and the posttraumatic stress that our veterans suffer when they go into harm's way, and they come back and they're suffering from reconciling all this violence to the new world they're coming back to, and they have to readjust to the main life of everybody else, and they have to somehow come home, and a lot of them suffer from PTSD. Well, you can imagine, these are adults. These are fighting men and women, the men and women of our Armed Forces, and they have adult coping mechanisms. And even adults, with adult coping mechanisms, have posttraumatic stress disorder.

So imagine what a child is facing in a barrio in East Los Angeles, or in a borough in Upper Manhattan, or a neighborhood in South Providence, or Pawtucket, Rhode Island, imagine the coping mechanisms that the children are going to need to have in those areas when they see violence in their own hometowns. In a very real way, they are suffering from posttraumatic stress, while not even having to go

overseas to go see a war because the war that they are seeing is in their own backyard. They are seeing gunshots in their own backyard on a regular basis.

We have 36,000 people killed by firearms in this country every year, a far cry from the number of people that have been killed in action over in Iraq.

You know, this is a situation where it's not a small wonder that there are so many kids in this country who are acting out and who are having trouble with their own mental health needs and posttraumatic stress.

So, Mr. Speaker, we have a lot to do with addressing the mental health needs of our people, both seniors and children and, of course, those who suffer from serious mental illnesses at the same time.

So this is Mental Health Week. We need to raise awareness of mental health. And the most crucial part of destigmatizing mental health is for people to go online to any of the National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institute of Mental Health and so forth, National Institute on Alcoholism, and look up the studies, because you will see the biochemical makeup and breakdown of the brain and how it operates differently for those who are at high risk of being alcoholics, or at high risk of having a propensity to have a bipolar disorder or not, or having depression, or those people who may have other diagnosable mental disorders. It's quite striking that what you'll see in these videos that are a result of these MRIs, these new x-rays of the brain, that you cannot dismiss the notion that mental illnesses are physical illnesses. And we know that for a fact, because if you simply give people who were in total depression before certain medications, it's amazing how they blossom in their abilities to now live more functional lives after they've taken the medications.

So why we would ever treat the brain unlike any other organ in the body is beyond me. The brain is an organ in the body just like every other organ of the body. But unfortunately, in this country, in our health care system it's treated as if it's something separate.

What we need to do in health care reform is make sure the brain is treated holistically, as part of the body. And in any health care reform, it's got to be reimbursed holistically in terms of the rest of the health care package.

I thank Representative Napolitano for introducing this resolution in support of the goals and ideals of Mental Health Month. I rise today to speak to those goals, and the need to integrate them into health care reform.

According to the Institute of Medicine, together, mental and substance-use illnesses are the leading cause of combined death and disability for women of all ages and for men aged 15-44, and the second highest for all men. When appropriately treated, individuals with these conditions can recover and lead satisfying and productive lives. Conversely, when treatment is not provided or is of poor quality, these conditions can have serious consequences for individuals, their loved ones, their workplaces, and the nation as a whole. Tragically, individuals with serious mental illness have a life expectancy of 25 years less than the general population.

The World Health Organization defines health as ``a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.'' As we work to reform and reincentivize our health care system, we must ensure that it is a whole-body initiative, recognizing that mental health is integral to overall health, and that optimal overall health cannot be achieved without this.

With this in mind, we must diligently work to ensure that when crafting health care reform, we create a health care system that treats the whole person. Health care reform policy should support and encourage practices that fully integrate mental health into primary care. All providers, and in particular primary care doctors, must be trained and adequately reimbursed, for providing comprehensive and coordinated care--care that approaches health as a whole body initiative. Primary care physicians must be given the resources needed to adequately address the mental health needs of their patients. Innovations, like medical homes, are working to improve quality and contain cost, but the primary care workforce is not sufficient to meet the country's needs.

Over the last two decades, fewer medical students are choosing primary care for a number of reasons, including reimbursement issues. Payment policies do not adequately compensate doctors for the time it takes to coordinate care, provide case management, or address mental health and substance abuse issues in the primary care visit. Specialty providers and other physicians must likewise have training on mental health and substance abuse problems and be trained to provide collaborative care and case management, and be reimbursed accordingly.

For the 45.7 million Americans without health insurance (a number which has grown due to the recent economic downturn), we must create an affordable, quality health care system in which all Americans are covered. Providing coverage alone, as it exists now, is not a solution onto itself however. The coverage we provide for all Americans must include the full spectrum of evidenced-based mental health care, including both treatment and prevention services. Mental health coverage should not be subject to restrictive or prohibitive limits when formulating coverage determinations on the frequency or duration of treatment, cost-sharing requirements, access to providers and specialists, range of covered services, life-time caps, and reimbursement practices.

The expansion of insurance coverage is not the same as ensuring access. Lack of insurance is only one of the many barriers to care for those seeking mental health services. Those with coverage also face financial barriers to care due to prohibitive cost sharing requirements, limited access to providers, and denials of coverage for mental health conditions. Once all Americans have health insurance, coverage must provide for access to affordable, high quality care. Current barriers to care within the health insurance system must be eliminated, and mental health coverage must include access to the full spectrum of evidenced-based care for both prevention and treatment of mental health conditions. This includes, but is not limited to, access to and choice of doctors who approach health as a whole body initiative.

Other reform measures necessary to create a system best posed to treat the health of the whole body include: instituting rules for standardized payments; ensuring that clinical necessity is the determinant of patient care; replacing underwriting with a ``community rating'' system that would set premiums based on age and location instead of health status of the individual; requiring that any denials of coverage be transparent and subject to a meaningful and independent review process; promoting and incentivizing mental health prevention programs; integrating mental health consumers and providers in emerging health information technology systems; requiring the regular use of standardized, objective and uniformly applied clinical outcome measures; and improving coordination among social service sectors.

Further, in order to truly achieve the above stated principles, we need health care reform that addresses the underlying, systemic issues in our current system. We are the only industrialized country that treats health care like a market commodity instead of a social service. Thus, care is not distributed according to medical need but rather according to ability to pay. Cost savings cannot be discussed without acknowledging that 31 percent of all health care expenditures in the U.S. are administrative costs. The average overhead for private insurance in this country is 26 percent, compared to 3 percent for Medicare. The majority of doctors and Americans support a single-payer health care system, yet this option has been dismissed by many policymakers as unrealistic. As elected Representatives of this democratic system, we are responsible for representing the views of the public. Therefore, it is imperative that we keep this option in the discussion of health care reform.

I hope to work together with my colleagues to institute these critical changes to our nation's health care system. The American people deserve nothing less.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to acknowledge the extraordinary vision and compelling work for peace of Sompop Jantraka and his school, DEPDC--the Development and Education Programme for Daughters and Communities.

Mr. Jantraka understands the necessity for caring intervention in order to save the young, innocent, poverty-stricken masses of the world. He has toiled tirelessly and fearlessly, in the face of danger, organized crime and desperation and oftentimes abandonment by parents of their offspring, to prevent child trafficking in the Mekong sub- region of Thailand's ``Golden Triangle.'' He has made this cause, above many others, one of the main purposes of his life.

DEPDC is Thailand's first pro-active center for the prevention of child trafficking. It began with modest beginnings, nineteen ``daughters'' in a small house. And because of the incessant commitment to the preservation of children's futures, DEPDC has to-date prevented over 3,000 ``daughters'' and ``sons'' from being sold and from other forms of child exploitation. DEPDC has achieved this colossal feat by helping children gain access to adequate schooling and protective, safe sheltering.

Being a man of great humility, Mr. Jantraka has not sought acknowledgement but yet stands as a giant amongst many because of the success of his passion. In September 2008, Mr. Jantraka received a Rockefeller travel grant to participate as a panelist at the ``Clinton Global Initiative'' Annual Meeting in New York City in order to provide his expertise and insight. In March 2008, the University of Michigan awarded Mr. Jantraka its ``Wallenberg Medal'' for humanitarian service. It is my hope that Mr. Jantraka's work will continue to bring light to this severe, international pandemic that is encroaching upon and threatening the human rights of children across the globe.

Madam Speaker, on behalf of the constituents of the State of Rhode Island and those whose lives have been impacted by Special Olympics Rhode Island, I would like to pay tribute to Mike McGovern, a man who has dedicated his life to the fulfillment of dreams of many with intellectual disabilities.

After a long and accomplished career serving in various leadership capacities for Special Olympics Rhode Island, Mike has decided to retire. He served as Assistant Executive Director from 1988 through 1998 before taking on the role of Executive Director in 1998. Over the last two decades, Special Olympics Rhode Island has benefited from his talents in fiscal management, fundraising, public relations, personnel management, and compliance with accreditation requirements established by Special Olympics, Inc.

Without a doubt, Mike's greatest satisfaction has come from watching young children with intellectual disabilities defy stereotypes and low expectations. Witnessing the children develop into confident, productive members of society is one of the many motivations that have empowered Mike over the course of his career. Additionally, Mike has been the driving force behind the success that Special Olympics Rhode Island has enjoyed in its commitment to being an athlete-centered program. His enthusiasm and guidance has ensured that Special Olympics Rhode Island is one of the most innovative and dynamic sports organizations in the state.

Mike McGovern remains a true friend to all those whose lives are touched by a person with developmental disabilities. Special Olympians across Rhode Island will miss his dedication and devotion as an individual who truly exemplifies the true meaning of Special Olympics, sport, spirit, and splendor.

Mr. Speaker, it was my intention to vote ``nay'' on question of passage of Senate Amendment 512 of H.R. 627 (rollcall vote 277). I case a vote of ``aye'' in error. I strongly support regulations to restrict individuals from bringing concealed or loaded weapons into our country's national parks.

Madam Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to Dr. Helen Graves, an extraordinary woman who passed away April 21, 2009 at the age of 84. She was a noted and celebrated innovator in the field of experiential education and a devoted, civic-minded citizen of humanity.

Born February 21, 1925 in Pittsburgh, IL, Dr. Graves grew up in Southern Illinois, later deciding to study social science at Southern Illinois University. Upon receipt of a bachelors degree, she acquired a masters degree from the University of Minnesota and later a Ph.D. from Wayne State University, at age 50.

During her career, Dr. Graves was instrumental in the development of young minds, preparing them for future civic duty and awareness. She established the first comparative political internship program in the Canadian House of Commons in 1984 and established the Washington Internship program, which she oversaw for 20 years. At the University of Michigan Dearborn, where she served as a professor from 1975-2006, she helped found the Women's Commission, which celebrated its thirtieth anniversary in 2006. She also earned the university's 1980 Distinguished Junior Faculty Award, 1989 Sara G. Power Award, and 1993 Outstanding Service Award. Dr. Graves established a number of new courses in the curriculum, including Women's Politics and the Law and Canadian Politics. From 1992-1995, she sat on the Screening Committee of the Fulbright Program for Canadian Awards.

Dr. Graves was recognized by the Canadian House of Commons in 1993, elected delegate to the Democratic Convention 1998, and appointed in 1984 and reappointed in 1986 by Governor James Blanchard to the Michigan Women's Commission. She was the first woman president of the Michigan Conference of Political Scientists 2004 and the Washington Center for Civic Education 2003. Dr. Graves' Michigan Internship Program was recognized by the Michigan House and Senate, and she nominated to the Michigan's Women Hall of Fame 2003.

The legacy that Dr. Graves leaves is an eternal reminder of the great work one is capable of accomplishing when answering the call of service to the fellow man. Her endless commitment will be remembered, and her legacy lives on.

Madam Speaker, on behalf of the constituents of the State of Rhode Island and the students of Salve Regina University, I would like to acknowledge and commend Sister M. Therese Antone. She is currently fulfilling a fifteen-year tenure as the sixth president of Salve Regina University in Newport, and she will assume a role as the first Chancellor of the University on July 1.

Under the direction of Sister Therese Antone, Salve Regina University has impacted and improved the academic and economic vigor of the State of Rhode Island. Sister Therese has brought the issues of higher education, business ethics, healthcare and social justice to the forefront as a community leader and statewide representative. Sister Therese has been invaluable to Salve Regina University and the State of Rhode Island.

The diligent work of Sister Therese has had a profound impact on the lives of thousands. Her continued involvement and leadership at Salve Regina University will remain a paramount asset to the further development of higher education. I hereby recognize Sister M. Therese Antone for her service, achievement and dedication to the dynamic advancement of academia.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlelady from Florida for yielding me this time.

I would like to speak on behalf of the Rhode Island Motorcycle Association. They are a group of individuals who have taught me a great deal about the safety issues that they face on a daily basis as they ride their motorcycles. They talk to me frequently about the mandates that they face in regards to the helmet laws that face them and others around the country.

Many of them say that of course helmets are a great safety factor if you are going up to 30 miles per hour; but most of them are driving well over 30 miles per hour, and after 30 miles per hour, a helmet won't do you much good.

When you look at the numbers here, about two-thirds of the fatal car- motorcycle crashes, it is the driver who is at fault. Many of them contend that

those who are wearing the helmets often do not have the peripheral vision to know when the car is coming at them. When they are going through traffic and they have this big, bulky helmet on them, they cannot hear nor see where those cars are because of the blockage of their peripheral vision because of the helmet.

Many of them like wearing the helmets, but they want the choice. That is all they ask for. In that case they said let them decide when they ride as to whether to wear a helmet or not. They simply want that choice.

I think, as a matter of safety, it is important for us to make sure that the other motorists on the road know to be aware of motorcyclists, and I enjoy seeing bumper stickers, ``Beware of Motorcyclists on Road.'' I certainly am aware, whenever there is a motorcyclist pulling up, always to be aware to give them plenty of space, and I think most people would agree with me. But that is something in this bill that it calls for other motorcyclists to share the road and other motorists to share the road, that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration should promote that much more as well. Seeing there are more motorcyclists on the road, it is important that we get this message across. And on behalf of the Rhode Island Motorcyclist Association, I am happy to send their message to Congress.

Madam Speaker, today, along with my colleague Representative Eric Cantor, I am introducing the SMA Treatment Acceleration Act, in an effort to help find a treatment or cure for Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), the number one genetic killer of children under the age of two.

SMA is an inherited disease that destroys the nerves controlling muscle movement, which affects crawling, walking, head and neck control, swallowing, and even breathing. The gene mutation that causes SMA is carried by one in every 40 people, or approximately 7.5 million Americans. Each child born of two carriers of the mutant gene has a one in four chance of developing SMA.

Among more than 600 neurological disorders, SMA has been singled out by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as the disease closest to treatment. This priority status is based on scientists' advanced genetic understanding of the disease and a strong collaboration between families, federal agencies, and patient advocacy groups.

Researchers have identified the gene responsible for SMA, as well as a disease modifying ``back-up'' gene that has opened the door to promising new treatment pathways. This research is providing groundbreaking data for SMA and other neurodegenerative disorders, including the muscular dystrophies, Freidrich's Ataxia, Fragile X syndrome, and Huntington's disease.

This legislation will upgrade and unify SMA clinical trial sites and establish a national clinical trials network for SMA. It will also establish a Data Coordinating Center, expand and intensify federally supported research programs, and promote collaborative research at NIH. Additionally, the bill will enhance and provide support for the SMA patient registry, establish an Interagency SMA Research Coordinating Committee, and establish and implement a program for providing information and education on SMA to health professionals and the general public. These provisions will advance our research and understanding of SMA and lead towards effective treatments. I am proud to be reintroducing this legislation, and I urge your full consideration of this important legislation.

Madam Speaker, today, I am introducing along with my colleague Representative Cliff Stearns, the Prevention, Awareness, and Research Autoimmune Disease (PARAID) Act.

I am introducing this legislation to address the critical issue of autoimmune diseases in our population. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) estimates that between 14 and 23.5 million Americans have an autoimmune disease and the prevalence is rising. Seventy-five percent of those afflicted are women with most cases occurring during the childbearing years. The chronic nature of these diseases accounts for its incredible cost to the individual and staggering drain on our nation's healthcare resources. The National Institutes of Health estimates that annual direct health care costs for autoimmune disease are in the range of $100 billion.

Autoimmune diseases encompass more than 100 interrelated diseases, such as lupus, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, Sjogren's syndrome, polymyositis, pemphigus, myasthenia gravis, Wegener's granulomatosis, psoriasis, celiac disease, autoimmune platelet disorders, scleroderma, alopecia areata, vitiligo, autoimmune thyroid disease, and sarcoidosis. Basic research into the mechanism that drives the autoimmune response is the fundamental knowledge needed to cure many of these diseases.

This legislation will increase awareness of autoimmune diseases, increase research on environmental triggers of autoimmune diseases, enhance education on the relationship between autoimmune and mental illness, and provide loan repayment for physician research on autoimmune disease. This support will help alleviate the suffering of millions of Americans, who suffer every day with the symptoms of these diseases, many times unable to fully participate in their work and family life as a result.

For these reasons, I urge you to give full consideration of this bill as quickly s possible.

Madam Speaker, our nation is currently experiencing a shortage of child and adolescent mental health professionals. This means that many children and adolescents are not getting the care they need, forcing some families to travel great distances or wait on long waiting lists for their child to receive the mental health services they need. Enhancing the mental health workforce is critical to addressing this problem.

In 1980, the Graduate Medical Education National Advisory Committee recommended that the number of child and adolescent psychiatrists be increased by 8,000 to 10,000 by 1990, in order to meet the projected needs for treatment of child mental disorders. In 1990, the Council of Graduate Medical Education reported that the nation would need more than 30,000 child and adolescent psychiatrists by 2000. Yet in 2009, there are only 7,000 child and adolescent psychiatrists practicing nationwide, and few are located in medically-underserved, rural and urban areas. The U.S. Bureau of Health Professions projects that the number of child and adolescent psychiatrists will increase by about 30 percent to 8,312 by 2020, if funding and recruitment remain stable. This is still far less than the estimated number needed to meet the demand.

Today, I am introducing legislation in an effort to address this crisis. The Children's Hospitals Education Equity Act would allow children's psychiatric hospitals to qualify for Medicare Children's Hospital Graduate Medical Education (GME) funding, giving these vital hospitals more of the resources they need to care for our nation's children and adolescents. Current law excludes children's psychiatric hospitals from receiving funding that is used to cover the expense of educating residents, including time attending doctors spend training

residents, space and other administrative costs, and equipment use.

The legislation I am introducing today would expand the definition of a ``children's hospital'' to include certain children's psychiatric hospitals, thus giving them the essential resources they need to build the supply of trained child and adolescent psychiatrists, to advance the quality of training for child psychiatrists, and to provide care for some of our nation's most vulnerable children and adolescents. This change is essential in order to improve the quality of mental health care our children receive.

I thus urge your swift full consideration of this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I regret that I was unable to participate in a series of votes on the floor of the House of Representatives today.

Had I been present to vote on rollcall No. 193, The Crane Conservation Act of 2009, I would have voted ``yea'' on the question.

Had I been present to vote on rollcall No. 194, The Great Cats and Rare Canids Act, I would have voted ``yea'' on the question.

Had I been present to vote on rollcall No. 195, Lake Hodges Surface Water Improvement and Reclamation Act of 2009, I would have voted ``yea'' on the question.

Madam Speaker, today I am introducing the Primary Care Dental Academic Workforce Development Act of 2009.

Dental decay is the most common chronic childhood disease in the U.S. and also one of the most preventable. More than one quarter of American children between the ages of 2 and 4, half of children between ages 6 and 8, and nearly 60 percent of 15 year-old children suffer from dental decay. Despite this, schools of dentistry in the United States are experiencing difficulty in recruiting and retaining the expert faculty needed to train our nation's future dentists.

A strong dental faculty is needed to recruit and train the dental students needed to provide exceptional dental care to our nation's children. Yet, the nation is currently experiencing a shortage of pediatric dental faculty. While pediatric dentists treat only about 30 percent of children, they are responsible for training all of the dentists who treat children. A critical factor in this shortage is the staggering student loan debt and income disparity compared to private practice. The average graduating dental student loan debt was $158,104 in 2006, yet faculty positions generally only provide a third of the income as a private practice which many would-be faculty simply cannot afford.

Addressing the pediatric faculty shortage is especially critical for ensuring that children receive appropriate dental care from an early age and is absolutely essential in determining the quality of their oral health throughout their life. Further, the tragic death of Deamonte Driver in 2007 highlights that poor oral health can have tragic health outcomes, including death. Such tragedies should he avoided at all costs in the future.

For these reasons, my colleague Representative Mike Simpson and I are introducing the Primary Care Dental Academic Workforce Development Act of 2009. This legislation would expand authority under the current Title VII pediatric and general dentistry program to allow these training programs to utilize these grants funds to support loan repayment for up to $250,000 over five years in order to recruit and retain faculty. This authority would significantly' assist in recruitment and retention of pediatric dentistry faculty. Currently, pediatric dentistry programs may apply for Title VII funding to expand or enhance training programs, but not for faculty loan repayment.

Our nation's children deserve the best medical care that our nation has to offer. In order to provide this, we need to ensure we have the resources to train our health professionals. I am proud to introduce the Primary Care Dental Academic Workforce Development Act of 2009, and I urge your full consideration of this important legislation.